Campaigners are “deeply disappointed” as it appears work to improve Girton interchange will be passed over during a sweep of proposed upgrades.

On Wednesday, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) published its interim report into improvements to the Cambridge to Oxford corridor. The report called on central government to push ahead with better road and rail links between the two “brain belt” cities.

Campaigners had hoped the road improvements, which would see an “expressway” built, would mean improvements for the Girton interchange. This route, however, appears to be absent from the NIC’s report.

Francis Burkitt, South Cambridgeshire District Councillor and Vice-Chair of the City Deal Board, said improving the interchange would be one of the most cost-effective ways of sorting out congestion in the area.

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Cllr Burkitt said: “it is deeply disappointing to find out that the reverse may be the case: no money and no timescale. In the report, there is no reference to the A428/M11 bottleneck, no reference to the Girton Interchange, and no reference to even the possibility of thinking about studying the need to improve it. Unless some very clear and positive statements are made very soon about the Girton Interchange, either by the National Infrastructure Commission or by Highways England, we sadly seem to have no option but to assume that it won’t get re-modelled in our lifetimes.”

The NIC report is intended as an interim measure until a final report can be completed in 2017. The report suggests local views will be considered when drafting the final conclusions.

The report reads: “In developing and delivering these recommendations, the Commission will promote and build upon the best ideas from within the corridor itself - testing these through constructive challenge. It will also seek to balance the need for new plans and proposals that align to local needs, circumstances and preferences with the imperative for developing the corridor as driver of national prosperity.”

Cllr Burkitt stressed it was important to improve the road.

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He said: “As we all know, it’s not possible to drive between the A428 and the M11 except via Madingley Hill and the Madingley Mulch roundabout, which is deeply unsatisfactory and puts through traffic in conflict with local commuter traffic on a single carriageway road.

“I and many local campaigners have long argued for a re-design of the Girton Interchange to enable cars, buses and lorries to drive continuously between the A428 and M11 and vice versa – this will get even more pressing once Papworth Hospital moves and as the Biomedical Campus expands.

“However, I have also been a realist and accepted that the cost would be huge – £200m has been mentioned – and the timescale could be 15 or even 25 years away.

“Our main hope has been that the Oxford-to-Cambridge study was going to include the Girton Interchange in its scope, which might have provided the money and shortened the timescale.”